Elsevier

Earth-Science Reviews

Volume 183, August 2018, Pages 153-181
Earth-Science Reviews

Invited review
Geochemical and petrological insights into the tectonic origin of the Transmexican Volcanic Belt

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.12.006Get rights and content

Abstract

The Transmexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) is the magmatic expression of one of the most complex convergent margins on the planet, and as such constitutes a prime location for testing emerging hypotheses on arc magma genesis and its influence on continental crust formation. By coupling an extensive geochemical and petrological database with an improved stratigraphic and geophysical framework, in this contribution we will examine the compositional diversity of the TMVB from the perspective of changes in subduction zone geometry and crustal thickness, as well as within the context of more subtle tectonic processes such as lithospheric foundering, slab detachment, fore-arc subduction erosion, crustal relamination and diapiric exhumation. We will illustrate that the compositional variability of mafic magmas across the region is an inherited characteristic of a geochemically enriched pre-subduction background mantle wedge, which has been variably overprinted by diverse chemical fluxes released from the slab at different thermal conditions. We will argue that the volumetrically dominant intermediate magmas in Mexico — from andesite to dacite and even some rhyolite — represent primary melts from hybrid slab and mantle sources, with no perceptible compositional influences from the overlying continental crust. These interpretations depart from conventional models that invoke intra-crustal differentiation and contamination of basalt to create intermediate magmas, and therefore have important implications to understanding the genesis of global continents.

Introduction

The Transmexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) is one of the most compositionally diverse magmatic arcs on Earth and as such constitutes a prime location for testing emerging hypotheses on arc petrogenesis and tectonics, with implications to our current understanding of the construction and evolution of continents. Like in any other continental arc, calc-alkaline andesites are the most ubiquitous byproduct, but the TMVB has a surprising diversity of mafic and felsic volcanism that encompasses a great number of the known terrestrial varieties: from olivine tholeiites to Na-alkaline hawaiites and K-enriched minettes, and from metaluminous and peralkaline to peraluminous and even some rare trondhjemitic rhyolites. Despite the enormous advances that have been achieved in the stratigraphic, petrologic, geochemical, and geophysical characterization of the Mexican convergent margin, many of the same questions continue to linger: how can we explain the variety of rock types? Is there an underlying genetic link among them? And what does the diversity and distribution of these rocks tell us in terms of the tectonic origin and evolution of the convergent margin? This contribution attempts to examine these questions from the geochemical and petrological perspective; sustained upon an updated geochemical database and a much improved stratigraphic, geologic and geophysical framework.

The present manuscript represents the latest in a series of reviews on the TMVB and the Mexican convergent margin published over the past decade (Ferrari et al., 2012, Gómez-Tuena et al., 2007b, Manea et al., 2013), to which the reader is referred for a deeper understanding on the evolution of ideas. Most of the argumentation will be based on the compositions of mafic and intermediate rock types because these are more appropriate to decipher the dynamics of the deep mantle, and because most of the recent literature has been focused on their origin and evolution. Much less attention has been given to felsic volcanism since the last series of reviews, making these rocks a fertile ground for future generations to attend.

Section snippets

The Mexican convergent margin

The geologic and geodynamic evolution of the Mexican convergent margin has been the subject of so numerous studies over the past half century that any modern review of literature has to be highly selective. The most important aspects relevant to the present study will be briefly summarized here, but the reader is referred to the most recent reviews and references therein for a more comprehensive treatment of these subjects (Ferrari et al., 2012, Gómez-Tuena et al., 2007b, Manea et al., 2013).

The Transmexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB)

The TMVB is the youngest magmatic expression of a long history of eastward subduction that has affected the Mexican territory at least since the late Jurassic (Ducea et al., 2004a, Pérez-Gutiérrez et al., 2009a). Arc magmatism has been a continuous phenomenon ever since, but the locus of magmatism has migrated widely, presumably as a response to reconfigurations of the tectonic plates and fluctuations in subduction zone parameters (Ferrari et al., 2012, Gómez-Tuena et al., 2003, Gómez-Tuena and

Geochemical diversity

It has long been recognized that among the global spectrum of arcs, the TMVB is relatively enriched in incompatible trace elements (Plank and Langmuir, 1988, Turner and Langmuir, 2015a): it contains higher Na2O and K2O and more fractionated rare earth element (REE) patterns when compared to arcs emplaced on thinner crusts, such as the island arcs of the western Pacific (Fig. 4). As in any other continental arc emplaced on a thick continental basement, the most common magmatic suite is

On peridotites and pyroxenites: the story of olivine

Seismic studies (Kim et al., 2010, Pérez-Campos et al., 2008) and peridotite xenoliths entrained in arc front and rear arc magmas (Blatter and Carmichael, 1998a, Gómez-Tuena et al., 2003, Luhr and Aranda-Gómez, 1997) provide direct evidence for the existence of a peridotitic mantle wedge beneath the TMVB. Consequently, TMVB primary magmas are thought to be basaltic, or possibly basaltic-andesitic if mantle melting occurs at elevated water contents (Blatter and Carmichael, 1998b, Blatter and

Concluding remarks

Convergent margins are extremely complex systems and the classic sketches that we incessantly draft in classrooms and in scientific articles are unable to bring justice to their enormous convolutions. Igneous rocks are obviously a reflection of this complexity and by being one of the very few tools at our disposal to explore Earth's deepest reaches, the compositional information extracted from them has been of large importance to understand Earth's internal motion. And yet geochemistry is not

Acknowledgments

We are extremely grateful to all our co-workers and students for their important contributions to the various aspects of this work: Ofelia Pérez, Carlos Ortega, Manuel Albarrán, Gabriela Hernández, Eduardo Becerra, Alma Vázquez, Rosaisela Leija, Beatriz Díaz, Felipe Rodríguez, José Cavazos, Nelly Rincón, Mattia Parolari, Ana Tavera, Eli Sánchez, David Castillo, Fernando Ortega, Martin Tanner, Alex LaGatta, Georg Zellmer, Dario Tedesco, Steve Goldstein, Charlie Langmuir and Yue Cai. The present

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